CNN’s John King Explains ‘Dark Skinned Male’: ‘What I Am Not is Racist’

During his MSNBC show Wednesday, Sharpton called King’s description “coded, offensive language.” PBS anchor Gwen Ifill wrote on Twitter: “Disturbing that it’s OK for TV to ID a Boston bombing suspect only as ‘a dark-skinned individual.’”

After the claim of an arrest being made began to be refuted by other outlets Wednesday (and the Boston police department and FBI), King clarified on air: “One of the federal sources I was just communicating with said, ‘Even to say it’s an identification, a specific identification, is to go too far.’ But then I circled back, several Boston and state law enforcement officials say we have identified, based on the enhanced video.”

On Thursday, the FBI held a news conference releasing multiple photos and surveillance footage of the two suspects sought in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing. An FBI spokesperson for the Boston office said that the agency wouldn’t remark on ethnicity of the suspects.

“It would be inappropriate to comment on the ethnicity of the men because it could lead people down the wrong path potentially,” the spokesperson told the Associated Press.